RISE STATEMENT ON HILLSBOROUGH DISASTER INQUEST

RISE is delighted to note the verdict delivered yesterday at the Hillsborough Disaster Inquest, confirming to the world what everyone else already knew to be fact – that 96 football fans were unlawfully killed, through no fault of their own.

The 27 year long campaign for ‘Justice For The 96’ has been an outstanding testament to the courage of the campaigners. Despite the outrageous lies, smears, media slander and disgraceful establishment cover-ups, the victims of this greatest miscarriage of justice have never wavered in their pursuit of the truth. RISE takes immense inspiration from all the campaigners in their unrelenting and unbroken spirit.

RISE stands fully behind the exonerated in their endeavour to bring forth formal criminal prosecutions. Those who have lied, misled and deliberately covered up the events of Hillsborough that day, must be held fully accountable for their actions.

Throughout these 27 painstaking years, police and state collusion has reinforced the misguided view that somehow Liverpool fans were culpable in the death of 96 of their own. RISE hopes that the verdict from yesterdays inquest can offer some form of closure for the families, and that their courageous campaign for justice is almost at an end.